Mission Week 29

Hej everybody, 

This week flew by for me, but thinking back there is not many notable things that happened, mostly just the regular weekly events/lessons that we always have that don't really have a bunch worth talking about. But there were a few smaller things that brought me joy that I'll talk about.

On Monday night we met with our friend Anders for the second time. If you read all of my emails he is the one who we taught a few weeks back where I was prompted to talk about covenants. On Monday we didn't really go in with a lesson plan, because he is an interesting and deep thinking guy so we didn't really know where to go next. The conversation turned to prophets and we started discussing the need for a prophet on earth today. He wasn't really agreeing with most stuff we said but it was a pretty good discussion and I think both sides brought up good points. At one point in the discussion I asked him "do you think God loves all of his children?" with the intent to tie it back to prophets when he said yes, but he kind of sat there for a second and said "I really hope so, I really do". At this point I realized that our discussion about prophets no longer mattered. I turned to 1 Nephi 11:16-17 and together we read "16 And he said unto me: Knowest thou the condescension of God? 17 And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things." I was then able to bear my testimony to him, that I, like Nephi, don't know the meaning all things but I know God loves all His children. We invited him to pray to know how God feels about him, promising him that that is a prayer that will not go unanswered. The spirit was really strong in this lesson and it was a good reminder to me that yes it matters if people accept the restored gospel, but more importantly is helping others feel God's love for them. 

Recently we met some people that believe in the trinity, so on the call with family last week I asked my older brother Jake (walking doctrine database) for tips on teaching people who believe in the trinity. He gave me a few tips and some good moments during Jesus Christ's life from the Bible that make it pretty clear that God and Jesus are two separate people. Anyways, on Tuesday when we were talking to people at the mall, I ran into a lady who knew about our church (which surprisingly isn't many here) and said that she wasn't interested in talking to me. Since there isn't many here who know about us I kind of stopped her as she started to walk into a store to just ask what she knew about the church. We ended up having like a 10 minute conversation in the doorway of this store where she told me that she actually lived with a Latter-Day Saint family in her homeland Uganda, and said she just didn't agree with some of the things we believed in. When I asked her what, she said "your view on the trinity". We then started talking about the trinity, where in the kindest way possible I asked her what the trinity explanation is for when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane and He says "not my will, but thine be done". She didn't have an answer, and said that she would have to think more about it herself. I asked her if I could get her phone number so that we could meet up again and talk more about her thoughts, and surprisingly she agreed. While we were trading numbers, I asked her how long she has lived in Sweden and if she liked it here, to which she replied 5 years, and that yes she did like it because she is an introverted person so the closed off personalities of the Swedes fit her better than the extroverted people in Africa. I told her that I was an introvert too so I understood, and after that we said a few more words and parted ways. Now I don't bring this up to show that I "won" in a discussion with someone who believes in the trinity, but because of what happened later that night. When we got home later, I checked my phone to see a text from her that said "Just saying that for an introvert, you are doing very well at meeting and talking to strangers. /Florence". To say that this text made may day is an understatement. I have had some struggles talking to strangers in public so far on my mission. It really really touched me that she would text that, especially considering that I basically spoke against probably her most core belief. I know that that was a long explanation for a simple text, but it was a really great example of Christlike love, no matter the differences we may have. 

We had another lesson with Sabrina, and her brother Natnael came by surprise again. We tried to answer some of his questions he had about hell that he asked us the week before, but he didn't really agree with much of what we said. After about a 30 minute explanation on that, we kind of just discussed some other questions both of them had, and it was really good to talk with both of them and hear more of their thoughts. At the end of the lesson Natnael said that he is grateful for all we are trying to teach him, even if there is like 1 percent of stuff that we don't agree on. He then told us that he chose to come to our discussion over playing soccer with his friends, which reminded me that both Sabrina and Natnael are still in high school. I felt a lot of love and respect for them in that moment, and realized their faith in Christ for continuing to make time to meet with us. 

The best part of my week was Friday night. It was the young men/young women activity, and they went sledding. If you remember last week I met that family on the street and they ended up coming to church. Well we had a meeting scheduled with them on Friday but they canceled the morning of, which I was pretty upset about because I had been looking forward to meeting with them all week. We decided we would just invite the 2 teenagers to the sledding activity to see if they would want to come. Well they did end up coming which was awesome. We had a lot of fun with them and the other young men and women in the ward. We have an awesome group here in Borlänge and it was awesome to see them all welcome Gitahi and Wanja even though they don't speak much Swedish. The hill was easily the biggest hill I have sled down, and there was sooo much snow which was good because a lot of it melted earlier in the week because it was pretty warm this past week. Anyways the best part of the whole thing after was that we texted Wanjiru (mom of the two teenagers who came) and just said that it was awesome to have Gitahi and Wanja at the activity. Wanjiru replied back thanking us for inviting them, saying that they really needed it. I think they have had trouble making friends since coming to Sweden so I was really glad to help them have a fun night with some new friends. 

Another small miracle that happened this week came on Saturday. We had been trying to fix the super old translation devices all week for Wanjiru and her family. On Saturday morning we called a member who knew more about them, and he basically yelled at us and said that they weren't going to work but if we made sure they were plugged in he would try and help us Sunday. This made me pretty angry, especially because we were doing this to help more people who aren't members be able to understand church. We decided we would go to the church to make sure the devices were plugged in on our way to go finding. When we pulled into the church parking lot, an older member with another old lady we didn't recognize were standing outside the church waving excitedly at us as we pulled in. Come to find out the lady we didn't recognize isn't a member, but has met with the missionaries a lot in the past because she absolutely LOVES family history work. She is not interested in the church at all but was so excited to look at me and my companion's ancestors on Family Tree and offered to help us with more family history work. She told the member before we got there that she didn't know why but on her way to the grocery store she felt like she should stop by the church, and then we showed up. Even though she is not interested in the gospel at all, it was a really sweet experience and interaction with this kind old lady. God clearly wanted us to be there for it. 

Another thing that we did on Saturday was visit this inactive member named Haile. He is from Eritrea (small African country next to Ethiopia) and has been a member for about 3 years. After talking to him for a bit it seems that he is inactive because he doesn't feel like he fits in with the other members of the ward. He is really quiet and Swedish isn't his first language so it is hard for him to make connections with people. We talked about faith and how God helps us during our trials, and he opened up and told us some stories during his life where he undeniably saw God's hands. It was cool that once we started talking his mind was opened and he was reminded of his experiences that he has had with God. We encouraged him to come to church the next day, and he ended up coming! I greeted him with a big smile and said that I was happy to see him there, and he smiled back and said thank you. He seemed so much happier to be there than when he came a few weeks ago, which made me really really happy to see. 

Besides those things the week was mostly just our regular lessons that all went pretty well, besides our friend Aanu who refuses to even read the Book of Mormon before getting a confirmation from God that it the word of God. We fasted for her today to feel the power of the Book of Mormon. Please pray for her heart to be open to the Book of Mormon and the many blessings that come from it!

This transfer and especially the last couple weeks I have learned a lot about listening to the spirit and following promptings. It takes a lot of trust in God to be able to completely rely on Him and the Spirit, especially if sometimes it doesn't seem clear what He wants you to do or it is something that doesn't seem reasonable. I have also learned that it takes intense effort to be able to keep your mind ready and open for guidance from the Spirit. This quote from President Nelson explains it better than I can : "There is nothing easy or automatic about becoming such powerful disciples. Our focus must be riveted on the Savior and His gospel. It is mentally rigorous to strive to look unto Him in every thought. But when we do, our doubts and fears flee." I have definitely have days where I let the distracting thoughts win and I don't receive as much help from God as I would like. It seems like a small difference at first until we realize how much God can help us. President Nelson's words are true when he said "In coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost." It truly does take rigorous spiritual work, but what we get back is worth much more than what we put in. We can never be perfect, but as we make daily, hourly, or even minutely effort, God will bless us for our efforts. We are truly blessed to have the guidance of the Holy Ghost in our lives!

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